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"Sketching is one of my passions. I don't feel comfortable when I leave home without a sketchbook and some pens in my bag. I think that my way to put things in my memory is to draw them. And taking pictures isn't the same thing.

I live in a very dynamic surrounding — Israel is a warm country with warm weather and warm people. Of course, we have seashores, which calm us a little bit. I love to sit in a corner of some Tel-Aviv coffee shop and explore relationships: between people, their environment, between myself. All this unique local mix of cultures, languages and styles is always a great source for inspiration. You need to be fast, because, as I said, everything is very dynamic. But that's why I love it so much.

Sometimes, I look around, and I find some usual items like sugar bags or napkins. I use them in my drawings to show the atmosphere. Sometimes I draw directly on placemats."

"The dictionary says that a hobby is “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation.” Although urban sketching certainly provides both pleasure and relaxation, I don’t think of it as my hobby. I think of it more as a way of life – something that has become such a normal part of my everydayness that it shapes how I view the world.

For most of my life I had both the fear of drawing as well as the desire to draw. In 2011, inspired by Gabi Campanario’s Seattle Sketcher column, I finally decided to overcome the fear. His drawings of Seattle – my birthplace and lifelong home – were of sights that I had seen many times, yet had never truly seen. I wanted to learn to see, and therefore experience, those locations (and any new ones that I travel to) more completely. Part 8 of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto, to “show the world, one drawing at a time,” has a flip side: Sketching enables me to see my own world, one drawing at a time.

In the last four years, it is not an exaggeration to say that Urban Sketchers has changed my life. I have met and sketched with many wonderful people around the globe, either at symposiums or during other travel, because the USk network brought us together. I sketch almost weekly with my local group, sharing sketches, art supplies and friendship. Even when I stay home and enjoy sketches online, I am still a part of that rich network, learning with every sketch about other people’s lives.

In May, my husband Greg and I went to France for the first time, and I sketched the Eiffel Tower. Sketching one of the world’s most famous icons felt like a dream come true – the ultimate in urban sketching. But although I can’t resist sketching world-famous icons whenever I’m fortunate enough to see them, for me, urban sketching is much more than that.

Urban sketching is a tree with its middle chopped away to accommodate Seattle’s ubiquitous power lines. It’s about a couple of women chatting over coffee, or about workers roofing the house next door. It’s about an excavator filling a hole where a cherry tree once stood. Or the Tibetan monastery I drive by frequently that I couldn’t resist because it’s bright orange. Urban sketching is a string band performing at a local farmers’ market – or perhaps in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Celebrating the mundane as well as the famous is what urban sketching is all about. My sketches are not necessarily about “special” moments; they are moments made special because I sketched them."

Tina has been editor of Drawing Attention since 2013 and now serves on the Urban Sketchers editorial board. See more of her sketches on her blog, on Flickr and on Instagram.

"I was born in Mumbai (Bombay) and lived in different parts of India until I moved to San Jose, California, where I now live.

Travel inspires my art, but, traveling or not, I try to view the world around me as a traveller would; so whether I’m capturing a moment of calm on the banks of the Ganges in India, or sketching over coffee at my local coffee shop, I aim to look deeply, and with wonder, at both the everyday and the exotic, the old and the new.

I love color. My sketch kit consists of Extra Fine Sharpies (the fact that they bleed into the paper as soon as they touch it works really well for me—it forces me to work super-quick), a small set of Prismacolor pencils and a little watercolor travel set".• Blog• Flickr

"I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I studied architecture. I moved to Kassel (Germany) in 1999 to accomplish a master degree.
Although I have always drawn and paint, it was not until I started studying in the Uni-Kassel, that I started keeping a travel sketchbook. I had a teacher there who used to do a lot of sketches when he travelled on university excursions. When he retired, I helped to organize an exhibition of his sketches. He brought a huge box full of sketchbooks he had filled since he was an architecture student. I spent a whole day selecting the most interesting drawings. It was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a new world.
In the last 10 years I have the feeling of being in a long journey. I like to discover the cities where I live, to understand why a place is the way it is and what makes it different and unique from others. Drawing is for me a way to learn to love a place, to become part of it.
I like to draw architecture but I am more attracted to urban scenery, portraying how people live in the city. Since I’m a foreigner, everything that locals find normal and taken-for-granted, for me is exotic. I always carry a small watercolor travel set from Windsor and Newton and my sketchbook in my bag.
I always thought that drawing was a solitary experience until I found Urban Sketchers. It was amazing to find so many people doing the same thing. It is a great place to share!"
• Omar's blog.
• Omar's art on flickr.
• Omar's website.

Sketch it on....Amsterdam-Liverpool

Sketch it on its a caravan of drawing to be held in two European cities. In each city we will draw for three days with a group of experienced instructors.

Learn from world-class sketchers who will enjoy coaching you to new heights with your drawing and obesrvations of the city.

We all know Singapore is a world-class city as undoubtedly are Liverpool and Amsterdam which have been chosen as locations for this series of European summer workshops being led by a group of highly experienced urban sketching tutors including architect Norberto Dorantes, veteran architectural illustrator Frank Ching, architect and artist Simone Ridyard and urban designer and architect Climaco Cardenas.

If you can’t make the USK Symposium in Singapore why don’t you join us in Europe…? We’re sketching in two fabulous cities over two long weekends in August and you can join us on one or more of the workshops (discounts available if you book two cities). A detailed programme of events in each city including experienced tuition by enthusiastic and friendly professionals, exciting talks and walks, evening events and Sketchcrawls, all organised with local knowledge and tailored to all abilities.

Whether you're experienced or new to urban sketching, we invite you to join us anyway on our European adventure! Learn from world-class urban sketchers who will enjoy coaching you to new heights with your drawing and observations of the city.

In Amsterdam we're basing ourselves in the picturesque area around The American Bookshop on Spui. This is a central location close to the University of Amsterdam and home to many antiquarian bookshops and there's an open-air market selling artwork and books in the central square most days. It's also home to Cafe Luxembourg 'one of the world's most famous cafe's' according to the New York Times where we'll meet each morning at the start of our sessions. We do realise that for some participants in our workshop that it might be their first visit to the beautiful city of Amsterdam so our intensive programme of events includes talks, walks, boat trip and some sightseeing - whilst we're drawing of course!

Liverpool

In Liverpool we are basing ourselves on the famous Liverpool Waterfront, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site with its magnificent mix of historical and contemporary architecture as well as breathtaking panoramic views out across the River Mersey. We will divide our studio-based time between the Open Eye Gallery; one of the UK's leading photographic galleries and Tate Liverpool which should need no introduction!And as in Amsterdam we'll be creative tourists in this most stunning of cities!

One of the challenges in urban sketching is overcoming the flatness of the pages we draw on and capturing the three-dimensional qualities of spatial environments. This workshop therefore focuses on the following three aspects of drawing architecture on location.

1. Framing the subject

Selecting the subject

Deciding on a viewpoint

Establishing foreground, middle ground, background

2. Placing the composition on the page

Realizing the directional qualities of a composition

Visualizing the image on the page

Drawing the first five lines

3. Developing the perspective structure

Understanding geometry

Determining the eye level

Sighting for convergence, scale, and proportion

Learning Goals

The goal of the workshop is to develop an approach that will not only improve the spatial qualities of the work of advanced sketchers but also provide a sound foundation for beginners upon which they can grow their abilities.An advantage of this approach is that it enables one to work more quickly, the idea being that drawing multiple views can be more instructive than spending a lot of time on a single drawing.

Workshop Schedule

A 20-minute demonstration to illustrate the above principles and process would be followed by three sketching sessions. The first 30-minute session would focus on framing, composition, and the first five lines of a sketch. The following two 60-minute sessions would each focus on a different scene, build on the first experience, and provide more time to complete a sketch.

Each session would end with a sharing period and brief critique. During each sketching session, I would work one-on-one with each participant to discuss and demonstrate how each individual’s process, style, and technique of drawing might be improved.

Supply List

Nothing fancy, just a free-flowing pen or very soft pencil and paper.

B. Urban Entourage

(Norberto Dorantes)

Workshop description

When drawing the city it’s really important to record organic elements (trees and people), street furniture, cars, etc.In this workshop you will learn how to draw these elements to harmonize with the architecture.

Often first we draw buildings, then the rest. Have you ever thought that you can start a drawing based on such elements?

The workshop will develop these three topics:

1.Drawing organic. The basic idea is to create strategies to quickly draw a person, a tree, etc.

2.Drawing street furniture. A lamppost, a fire hydrant, a bench, etc. You will draw expressively and in the correct scale in your scene.

3.Boats,cars, bicycles.

We will work as follows:

●To choose an object from the foreground.

●We will explore relationships between that plane and different planes until the background.

●The expression is fundamental. We will include color, texture and shadows.

Learning goals

The Participants:

❏Will acquire the ability to build their sketches of urban space through an object and other urban entourage.

❏May easily find the proportions of buildings, objects, people and other environmental elements.

❏Will also explore the possibility of drawing complex structures or details (eg a boat or an architectural style)

❏Will learn to find a balance between the architecture and entourage

❏Will use colors, textures and shadows as protagonists of their drawings.

Workshop Schedule

❏Introduction, theory and demonstration about 20 min

❏Exercise 1 about 40 min

❏Explanation about 10 min

❏Exercise 2 about 40 min

❏Explanation about 10 min

❏Exercise 3 about 50 min

❏Exhibition, group feedback and final closure about 15 min

Supply list

We do not need very sophisticated materials, just use what you feel comfortable with; for example fine-liner pens or ballpoints in different colors of ink and a set of watercolors and / or colored pencils.

C. Perspective & Drawing Style

(Simon Ridyard)

OUTCOMES:

An introduction (or reintroduction) to the principles of perspective

Understanding of one and two point perspective; how they work in real life rather than just as a technical exercise. How to set them up, where to find eye level and the elusive vanishing point

Skyline sketch, concentrating on the city context and review (30 minutes)

Final drawing which brings it all together (60 minutes)

Review, final feedback (approx. 20 minutes)

Materials:

No specific requirement, but suggest fine liner pens (0.1-0.3mm) or pencil (B-2B) for Part One. Colour, mixed media; whatever you prefer for second part of the session welcomed...and encouraged! Also a sketchbook, in which you can draw in panoramic format (across 2 pages) so preferably not spiral bound. Folding stool would be helpful.

Learning Outcomes:

·An introduction (or reintroduction) to the principles of perspective

·Understanding of one and two point perspective; how they work in real life rather than just as a technical exercise. How to set them up, where to find eye level and the elusive vanishing point

Pens with non-waterproof ink can be an interesting and essential to dominate when we do sketching. Often it is believed that we should use permanent ink before the watercolor, however, non-waterproof ink enhance the richness of the work and can create very interesting artistic effects.

BENEFITS:

• The line softens and avoids hardness and rigidity.

• Produce fluency and freshness in the drawings.

• When using fine-tipped pens can we control the outflow of ink and avoid losing our

• The tone of the ink (slightly purple, depending on the type of ink) creates a special

• We can simply use water to produce depth or contrast in our work without other

• We work with graphics (stripes and patterns) in combination with stains (water

• Can be used variety of ink colors (brown, blue, black) to recreate special

• This technique is recommended for stroke atmosphere when it makes contact with watercolor. color. touches or watercolor) atmospheres.